In Praise of Fraternities

To an alarming extent, American men are afflicted with loneliness. Social media, gaming, and artificial intelligence have increasingly supplanted meaningful human connections, while limitless access to gambling and pornography have deepened men’s isolation and eroded their mental health.

Worsening matters is the loss of male friendship. A 2021 American Perspectives survey reported that 15 percent of men had no close friends, a fivefold increase from 1990. According to Centers for Disease Control statistics, men are four times more likely than women to take their own lives, accounting for 80 percent of all suicides.